


Hand to Heart

by LivingOutLoud



Series: Your Name on My Skin [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 01:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6265045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivingOutLoud/pseuds/LivingOutLoud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years after their first meeting, McCoy and Chekov are both assigned to the Enterprise, and both still keeping their secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hand to Heart

**Author's Note:**

> A soulmate marks AU where everyone is born with the name of their Soulmates on them. This is a series of Chekov/McCoy oneshots exploring what would happen in a world where you know someone is meant to be your soulmate by their name alone, without knowing anything else about them, and how that stunts Chekov and McCoy’s relationship before it even begins, and the painfully slow journey it takes them to finally accept it. The one-shots will be self-contained snapshots of their changing relationship in chronological order.

Leonard McCoy had made a point of avoiding Pavel Chekov for the next three years at Starfleet. He didn’t sit near him in classes, Chekov would sometimes glance his way when they passed in the hall, but McCoy would stare at the ground and they never spoke again. He knew the kid was helping Kirk to cheat at the Kobayashi Maru Test, and Len made sure to be nowhere near their dorm when they met up. So far it had worked well, and the kid seemed just as terrified at the idea of having McCoy as a soulmate as he was. If the fourteen year difference wasn’t enough to put the kid off, the mental difference would have done the trick. Bones was a good doctor, no doubt about it, but he was no certified genius. And Pavel wasn’t even some ordinary genius like Jim Kirk, he was the sort of genius other geniuses gawked at. 

Then all hell broke loose with a distress call from Vulcan and before he knew it, they were both being assigned to the Enterprise, three years of avoiding each other, up in smoke. 

McCoy stood behind his senior medical officers as they ran physicals on everyone on board. He’d spent most of his morning looking at half-naked people and the initial arousal mixed with embarrassment had quickly settled into stale boredom around the two-hundredth crewman. It was the same each time, unnecessary clothes off please, Cadet M’Benga scanned them, McCoy checked the scans matched the records, and Doctor Puri asked any needed questioned. About two-hundred and fifty people in, Pavel Chekov came through the med-bay doors. 

He’d certainly grown taller since McCoy had seen him last, but he didn’t look any less like a child. The same golden curls were falling in his face, the same delicate freckles and blue eyes stared at McCoy like a frightened deer while Puri asked him to strip. McCoy physically turned his head toward the wall while the boy took his uniform off. He took his shirt off last, sliding his hand over his chest before the fabric came off. Leonard tried not to notice the thin pale body standing in front of him, hand clamped over his heart. McCoy focussed on the PAD in front of him, and thank god there was nothing wrong and few questions for the boy. Finally, Puri asked, “Why is your hand on your chest?”

“I’m covering my soulmark, sir.” Chekov said.

McCoy looked up but Pavel was staring at the ground.

“If it’s alright, I don’t think it wise that it get around who I am matched to.”

“That’s fine, cadet, most crewmen haven’t had their soulmates registered. You’re dismissed.”

M’Benga laughed once Chekov had left the room. “His soulmate must be someone high up, the captain or the admiral or something, for him to look that embarrassed.”

“Or else it’s someone real simple.” Puri said, “Imagine a kid like that matched with some ordinary seventeen year old.”

The two had a good laugh until the next cadet came through the doors. McCoy stared at the floor.


End file.
